Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training (Robertson)

Domain XV · Nature, philosophy, social & rites of passage · Donald Robertson · 2014

What it is

SMRT is not a psychotherapy. It is a free, four-week, online self-help course in "basic Stoic practices for use in daily life", developed under the auspices of Modern Stoicism (a nonprofit multidisciplinary team), with Robertson as instructor and, in 2020, Robertson and Tim LeBon as facilitators.…

Format

• Format as published: online and asynchronous, with short lectures, worksheets, audio recordings, knowledge checks, group discussion and social media, a weekly live webinar (Sundays in the 2017 run), and a course facilitator for problems; access lasted five weeks from enrolment; time demand…
• Structure (course outline as published; lecture contents are enrolment-only, so each phase's goal below is inferred from its titles and Robertson's other writing):

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Version followed: the Stoic Mindfulness and Resilience Training (SMRT) e-learning course designed by Donald Robertson for Modern Stoicism, as its published course outline sets it out (first run 2014; outline as published for the 2017 run on Robertson's teaching site; 2020 announcement for format and eligibility), supplemented by the technique chapters of Robertson's The Philosophy of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy…
• SMRT is not a psychotherapy. It is a free, four-week, online self-help course in "basic Stoic practices for use in daily life", developed under the auspices of Modern Stoicism (a nonprofit multidisciplinary team), with Robertson as instructor and, in 2020, Robertson and Tim LeBon as facilitators. It is pitched as "intensive practical skills training" in a handful of cognitive skills that the organisers describe as…
• Core idea of change, as Robertson presents it: following Epictetus, distress comes less from events than from our value judgements about them (in George Long's public-domain translation, "Men are disturbed not by the things which happen," Enchiridion 5). Training continual attention (prosoche, which Robertson calls "Stoic mindfulness") to one's own judgements, catching impressions early, gaining "cognitive distance"…

Evidence status, as the guide reports it

• Evidence status (one line): the 2014 run (just over 500 participants, roughly 31% completion) reported improvements on life-satisfaction, positive and negative affect and flourishing scales by comparing all participants' pre-course means with completers' post-course means, explicitly as…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• over-ambitious routines that collapse; guilt about missed days. Working: practice continues most days without strain.
• reminders that become background noise; change them periodically. Working: the client reports pausing at least sometimes when cued.
• monitoring becoming rumination or self-criticism; incomplete records (see section 5). Working: the client starts noticing earlier in the sequence.
• activities that are too large; clients judging success by others' reactions. Working: actions get done and the client links them to who they want to be.
• turning into anxious anticipation or worry; keep it short and action-focused. Working: the client reports being less ambushed by predictable irritations.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.